Coke Oven Professional Negligence Claims

Hugh James and Irwin Mitchell were the court appointed lead solicitors in the British Steel Coke Workers Litigation. It has come to our attention that some other solicitors did not advise their clients to register with Hugh James or Irwin Mitchell to be included in the group litigation order before the court deadline.

If your claim would have met the criteria for inclusion in the Group Litigation Order then you may have missed out on the opportunity to recover compensation. Get in touch to find out if you have a second chance to make a claim.

Our professional negligence claims solicitors are experienced in successfully bringing claims against many different professions. If you feel that a professional has been negligent, contact us today so we can advise you on whether you have a claim and whether we can help you to recover any losses you may have suffered.

What is professional negligence?

Professional negligence occurs when a professional fails to carry out his or her duties to the required standard of care; this may result in a claim brought by a client, or, in certain circumstances the professional may be found to owe specific duties to third parties. A claim in professional negligence may be based upon any of the following:

1. a breach of a contract
2. a breach of a duty of care owed in the tort of negligence
3. a breach of a fiduciary duty
4. a breach of a statutory duty

Our professional negligence claims experience

Below are some recent and ongoing cases we have successfully acted on behalf of clients. These professional negligence examples include:

• acting for a well-known sporting organisation in a multi-million-pound claim against its former solicitors. The claim against the negligent solicitors settled favourably before trial
• successfully compromising a claim against a negligent solicitor on behalf of a client who suffered a catastrophic injury. Our client had negligently been advised to reject an initial settlement offer following their injuries. The claim was settled and we recovered damages exceeding £160,000 for our client
• bringing a claim on behalf of a vulnerable adult who was negligently advised as a minor following a personal injury claim. The initial claim was grossly under-settled as a result of the solicitor’s negligent handling of the claim
• acting for numerous clients where deadlines for care-home fees have been missed
• advising a company on the legal and financial implications of severing the final salary link in fetter of the scheme rules and deeds undertaken by the trustees of the company’s pension scheme. We are also assessing a potential negligence claim against the former legal advisers and actuaries
• settling a high value claim against a negligent conveyancing solicitor who failed to carry out the necessary pre-purchase searches which resulted in the later discovery of a footpath running through the land
• acting for a seller of land whose solicitor negligently failed to include proper provisions to retain rights of grazing over common land at the time of sale
• representing a client whose solicitors negligently failed to secure a charge over the defendant’s property at the conclusion of a trial which resulted in the defendant selling the property and removing his assets from the jurisdiction
• acting on behalf of a client in a high value claim against a firm of solicitors who negligently settled our client’s claim at an undervalue
• acting on behalf of a client whose solicitor failed to provide advice about relevant funding options for litigation and failed to advise on the costs’ implications of not accepting an offer to settle. The amount awarded at trial did not exceed the settlement offer and our client was ordered to pay the defendant’s costs
• acting in conjunction with our nationally renowned Nursing Care Department, we regularly advise clients in respect of claims against negligent solicitors who handled applications for the reimbursement of continuing healthcare costs. Often these claims arise from the solicitor having failed to take action within the relevant limitation period which prevented our client from recovering their money from the relevant health board